Hurricane Ian destroys Florida, killing 40 people.

The death toll from Hurricane Ian, one of the most violent storms ever to hit the United States, surpassed 40 on Saturday, as President Joe Biden prepares to visit Florida later this week to assess the damage.

Rescuers were still seeking survivors in inundated neighborhoods and along the state’s southwest coast, as devastated Florida communities were only now beginning to realize the full extent of the devastation.

When Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, it wiped up homes, restaurants, and businesses.

The confirmed number of storm-related deaths in Florida grew to 44 late Saturday, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. However, reports of further fatalities were still coming in county by county, implying a far higher final toll.

Hard-hit According to Lee County’s sheriff, 35 people died in the storm, although US media outlets such as NBC and CBS reported more than 70 deaths that were either directly or indirectly tied to the hurricane.

The governor’s administration in the coastal state of North Carolina verified four deaths due to Ian.

Biden and his wife, Jill, will visit Florida on Wednesday, according to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but they will first go to Puerto Rico on Monday to see the damage caused by a separate storm, Hurricane Fiona, which devastated the US island last month.

On Saturday in Florida’s Lee County, rescuers and regular folks in boats were still rescuing the remaining trapped residents of the small island of Matlacha. Debris abandoned automobiles, and downed trees cluttered the hamlet’s main street and surrounded it, which is peppered with colorful wooden cottages with corrugated roofs.